No word yet from DA on who fired the fatal shot in Warminster standoff

By Matt CoughlinStaff Writer

Wednesday

Feb 27, 2013 at 12:01 AMFeb 27, 2013 at 5:30 AM

The Bucks County District Attorney’s Office is expected to decide later this week whether police officers’ actions were justified and whether a Warminster man should be charged in the death of a neighbor during a seven-hour standoff Feb. 19.

Warminster police have referred all questions about the case to the District Attorney’s Office, and District Attorney David Heckler had said he expected the investigators’ reports late last week and will likely make a determination after returning from a legislative committee meeting in Harrisburg mid-week.

Several issues are involved, including whether officers should have fired at the occupied building at Jefferson on the Creek Apartments from which Andrew G. Cairns was firing at them; and whose bullet, of the more than a dozen that were fired, killed 89-year-old Marie Zienkewicz, who lived directly below Cairns.

Prosecutors have said Cairns — who has been charged with attempted murder for allegedly shooting at police — could face more charges depending upon the outcome of their investigation.

Cairns’ girlfriend called 911 about 7:42 that night to report he was threatening to kill himself and had already fired his gun twice, according to police. Officers had been to the apartment earlier that afternoon to break up a domestic dispute between the two, police said.

There were some officers already in the complex on an unrelated matter who rushed toward the apartment. They came under fire from the area of Cairns apartment in the 2000 building as they passed the area of a pool and took cover on the banks of a creek that splits the complex, police said. As more than a dozen shots were fired, officers fired four times in Cairns’ direction, investigators said. Then a standoff ensued. Cairns let his girlfriend leave the apartment unharmed at about 8:30 p.m. Residents were evacuated from the immediate area and between 8:30 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Zienkewicz’s body was found in her apartment.

Then shortly after 2:30 a.m., Cairns surrendered to police.

The coroner’s office said Zienkewicz died of a single gunshot that entered through her right shoulder blade and exited through the left side of her chest.

Bucks County detectives, who took over the investigation of the incident after the standoff ended, sent the police officers’ guns and several firearms legally owned by Cairns, to a Montgomery County firearms examiner.

In the hours after the incident and with a search warrant in hand, police seized several guns, including a .44-caliber magnum, a 12-gauge Winchester, several .22-caliber and .380-caliber guns and a 9 mm handgun, from Cairns’ apartment. Executing a second search warrant, police went looking for documents, a suicide note, a computer, a cellphone, medications and various other weapons, including swords, knives and a telescoping baton much like the kind some police departments use.

Police reportedly found a suicide note from Cairns on the bed. It’s not clear what was in the note. They also learned that Cairns had been drinking throughout the day, police said. Investigators also said he complained about the Ritalin and Oxycontin he was prescribed.

Investigators wrote in the second search warrant that they wanted to review Cairns’ computer and cellphone as they looked into his motivation.

Detectives wrote that “often when a person attempts to kill or injure numerous people as a result of being suicidal, he may research methods to commit these crimes on the Internet prior to their commission.”

Police said they believe they might find evidence of his motivation on his computer or cellphone because “these types of people who attempt to kill themselves or others often derive their plans from the Internet, and list their motivations for suicide or commission of these types of crimes in documents contained in his computer or cellphone.”

Zienkewicz is being buried Wednesday at Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in Cheltenham.

Family members have called her a devoted wife, mother and grandmother. She leaves behind four children, seven grandchildren, 13 great-grandchildren and one sister.

Her obituary, which ran in newspapers Sunday, called her death tragic, and a statement from her family said she was the last person who should be killed by senseless violence. A widow, she lived in the apartment alone because she was private and valued her independence.

“We, her children, helped her find a safe suburban environment to live independently in her final years,” the statement read.

Matt Coughlin: 215-345-3147; mcoughlin@phillyburbs.com;

Twitter: @coughlinreports

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